Bethany Hamilton
Bethany Meilani Hamilton (born Febrauary 8,1990), daughter of Thomas and Cherilyn Hamilton, Bethany is an American professional surfer. She is known for surviving a shark attack in which she lost her left arm, and for overcoming the serious and debiliating injury to ultimately return to professional surfing. She wrote about her experiance in the 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith,Family and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. ''In April 2011, the feature film ''Soul Surfer ''was released based on the book and additional interviews. On October 31, 2003, at the age of 13, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai with one of her friends, Alana Blanchard , and Blanchard's father and brother. Around 7:30 a.m., with numerous turtles in the area, she was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14 ft (4.3 m) tiger shark attacked her, ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. The Blanchards helped paddle her back to shore, then Alana's father fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash, and wrapped it around the short piece left of her arm, before rushing her to Wlicox Memorial Hospital.Her father was supposed to have knee surgery that morning, but she took his place in the operating room. She then spent seven more days in recovery at the hospital. Shark attack and recovery Despite the trauma of the incident,Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Less the one month after the incident she retuened to her board and want surfing again. Initially,she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker,making it easier to paddle.She has observed that she has to kick a lot more to make it up for the loss of her let arm.After teaching herself to surf with one arm,she again began surfing competitively.She is now back to using competitive perfomance short-boards. In July 2004, Hamilton won the Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award. She was also presented with a special "courage award" at the Teen Choice Awards. In 2005,Ha,ilton took 1st place at the National Scholastic Surfing Assoiation (NSSA) National Champitonships,a goal she had beem trying to achieve since before the shark attack. In 2008,she began competing full-time on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS). In her first competition against many of the world's best women surfers,she finished 2nd. Media Since the attack,she has appeared on ''20/20,Good Morning America,Inside Edition,The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show,The Today Show ''and ''The Tonight Show, as well as in magazines:'' People'',Time and American Girl. Additionally,she was the cover story in the premier issue of niNemagazine.' In 2004, MTV Books published Hamilton's book, Soul SurferL A True Story of Faith,Family and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (ISBN O-7434-9922-0), which describes her ordeal.Her story is also told in the 2007 short subject documentary film,''Heart if a Soul Surfer, directed by Becky Baumgarner. Desribed as a "faith-based documentary", the film addressed Hamilton's courage and faith in Jesus Christ in the aftermath of the shark attack,and follows her quest for spiritual meaning. On August 7,2009, Hamilton won $25,00 on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. She was stuck on a third grade grammer question involving articles. On May 16,2010, she appeared on an epiosde of ABC's Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. In March 2011, Bethany did a video for the Christian organization,I Am Second, telling about her struggle after the shark attack and how she trusted in God to get her through it. On April 8,2011, a docudrama feature film Soul Surfer, based on her 2004 book, was released. Hamilton is portrayed by AnnaSophia Robb-with Dennis Quaid,Helen Hunt,Craig T. Nelson, Carrie Underwood and Kevin Sorbo also starring in the film. Hamilton performs all the one-armed surfing stunts in the film. On the weekend of August 20,2011, Bethany was a guest speaker at Fellowship Chruch in Grapevine,Texas. A video can be seen at it's website showing Pastor Ed Young interviewing Bethany. Fellowship Church saw over 25,00 people in peopl in attendance across the three servies that is offered at five different campuses around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in Miami,Florida. Category:Browse